Cooperation Jackson, Cooperation Vermont, the Marshfield Cooperative and PNLL
/VERY EXCITING NEWS!!! Our model is spreading to Vermont. On Monday Cooperation Jackson purchased the Marshfield Village Store in Marshfield, Vermont.
THE PROJECT: We, along with Cooperation Vermont, are actively converting the Village Store into a community cooperative that will be owned by its workers and community members. The Village Store is operating during this conversion and will continue to serve the people of Marshfield and its surrounding areas.
BACKGROUND: Cooperation Vermont was founded in 2021, with the help and support of Cooperation Jackson. Cooperation Vermont is part of the People’s Network for Land and Liberation (PNLL), which was initiated by Cooperation Jackson in 2020. PNLL consists of Building Fearless Futures, Community Movement Builders, the Center for Grassroots Organizing, Cooperation Humboldt, Cooperation Jackson, Cooperation Vermont, and Survivors Village/New Day Collective.
PURPOSE: Together, PNLL is trying to advance the practice of building base areas in the United States that foster self-determination and the decommodification and decolonization of land. By building class conscious worker cooperatives and solidarity institutions we help advance the construction of eco-socialism from below.
REQUEST FOR SUPPORT: Please donate generously here: https://cooperationjackson.org/donate. Please include either general funds, Cooperation Vermont, Marshfield Coop, or PNLL to direct your donation where you would like it to go. All
Vermont Village Store implements new business model to keep doors open
MARSHFIELD, Vt. —
Small businesses have been one of the hardest hit during the pandemic, but one small Vermont community just couldn't let that happen to their store.
A few months ago, the Marshfield Village store went on the market. The previously family-owned business had to make the tough decision to sell because of Covid-19 impacts and staffing issues.
Residents, who affectionally call the store the "heart of the community," worried that it would soon be bought and turned into something else that they didn't want.
A group people who wanted to save the store came together and raised the funds needed to secure the building. Once they got the go-ahead to run the store, they began constructing a business model that they believe will help invest in their local economy and keep the store open for future generations.
"This was my first job when I was 15," Jack Whelan, supply manager and employee-owner, said. "Potentially being a part owner would be super cool because I really care about this store. It was my first job, but it taught me a lot about business and community."
The "Employee-Owned Cooperative" model they decided on will allow all 15 employees after 12 months, at 500 hours put in, to get partial stake in the business. The hope is that it will spark entrepreneurship and be an incentive for employee retention.
"This store is very much a hub for the community," Michelle Edelman-McCormick, general manager and employee-owner, said. "We were definitely motivated to try and preserve what was here because we understand innately how much of a lifeline these village stores are to our communities."
While most of store has stayed the same, one new initiative they'll focus on is buying more local products.
The soon-to-be owners said that if any local Marshfield businesses are interested in getting their products on the village store's shelves, all they have to do is come in and talk with the staff.
"I'm always excited to come into the store," Senayit Tomlinson, an employee-owner, said. "We do really want to make this a very inclusive and welcoming place for all folks, out of towners, BIPOC folks, for the local folks as well."
Marshfield Village Store becomes worker-owned cooperative
MARSHFIELD — The new owners of the Marshfield Village Store hope turning the store into a worker-owned cooperative will give employees incentive to stick around and make the business better.
Kenny and Ciara Phillips had owned the store for seven years, though Ciara Phillips had been running it since 2010. She said operating the store during the coronavirus pandemic has been “awful and insane.”
She said finding staff has been difficult at times and the store has been plenty busy.
A group of five people has raised $700,000 through private donations to buy the store. The pair jumped at the chance to sell the store and do something else, though they don’t know yet what that looks like. The sale was finalized Monday.
“We had a lot of fun doing it, we’re just ready to do something different,” Kenny Phillips said, adding it’ll be bittersweet to say goodbye to the community they see as a family.
“We tell people it’s the best place in Vermont,” he said.
Ciara Phillips said she didn’t know much about worker-owned cooperatives, but she hoped it would give people more initiative to work towards something and solve the staffing issues.
Michelle Eddleman McCormick is one of the five like-minded individuals who bought the store. McCormick had a career in international travel that was upended by the pandemic. So she said she quit her job, left Florida for Vermont and ended up becoming friends with the other business partners.
“I didn’t wake up this time last year thinking I’d be running a store,” she said.
McCormick said she was looking for a better pace of life and a better natural environment for her children and found that in Marshfield. She said she is concerned about the impacts of climate change and southwest Florida has seen environmental degradation, so she wanted to raise her kids in a place with a sense of community that will be more resilient to climate change.
She said while the building that houses the store will be owned by a nonprofit so that it’s preserved and protected for the community, the partner group has decided the business will be owned by those who run it.
“We feel like it’s the most equitable model for our economic system, where the workers are the owners,” she said.
McCormick said this cooperative is different from the Plainfield Co-op or the Hunger Mountain Coop, where those are member-owned cooperatives. She said this store will remain mostly the same as it was, apart from a stronger focus on locally-made products, but the employees will become owners and there will be a democratic process in how the store is operated.
She said the store has about 14 people working part time and they have agreed to stay on under this new format.
While the retail industry has not gone unscathed through the pandemic, McCormick said it was a different kind of hit from the travel industry. She said while there are obstacles such as supply chain issues, the village store has actually been busier than normal because people stayed local and tried to shop at smaller places.
She said staffing was the challenge and hopefully when the workers are the owners, there’s a different sense of responsibility and accountability.
“You have a personal, vested interest in the success of the business, rather than someone who just clocks in and clocks out,” she said.
She said the store will have a board of directors that will be elected by the workers. McCormick said any of the employees will be eligible for a director seat.
